1.As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.
As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will improve rather than deteriorate.
First, technologies can improve people's thinking ability because computers and artificial intelligence can replace people to do the repetitive work, giving people more time to relax and think for themselves. For example, tesla motor company produces cars with the function called autopilot and the car can automatically drive itself. Thus, when caught in a traffic jam, the driver doesn't have to waste one or two hours watching the road and driving the car but he could simply use the autopilot function and spend his time thinking for solutions to the problems he might encounter at work. Thus, with the help of computers and artificial intelligence, people could spend less time doing meaningless chores and more time thinking for themselves.
Second, technologies can improve people's thinking ability because the inventions of the Internet and smartphones make it much easier for people to obtain information than before. People could simply use their iPhone on the subway or bus to search information on Google and Wikipedia instead of spending a day or two finding a book in the library. People could also make Facetime calls or send emails to communicate with their relatives and friends instead of writing a letter and waiting several weeks for the response. Moreover, the world's first-class universities like Harvard and MIT have uploaded their courses on the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform and people all over the world could take these courses for free. Therefore, people who live in remote areas and do not have direct access to university education resources could use the MOOC platform like Coursera to finish their university education. Therefore, with the help of Internet and smartphones, people could obtain more valuable information to help them improve their ability to think for themselves.
Third, by taking advantage of technologies, people can discover many new problems and the process of solving these new problems in turn will improve people's thinking ability. For example, with the development of telescope, scientists can observe and study the universe more effectively and they might even be able to discover alien lives on other planets. The invention of microscope helps scientists to study bacteria and find ways to cure diseases that killed millions of people in the past. Hence, the process of using technology to discover and solve new problems would improve people's ability to think for themselves.
Admittedly, some people might rely too much on technology and their thinking ability might deteriorate. For example, by making use of the Internet and smartphone, some people might become addicted to playing online games. In China, a smartphone video game called King of Glory has more than 80 million daily active players and 200 million monthly active players, more than 30% of whom spend as much as six hours a day playing this game. However, this is not the fault of technological advances. Without the Internet, these people would be more than likely to become addicted to other forms of entertainment. Therefore, it is not the technological advances but people’s indolence that leads to the deterioration of their thinking abilities.
To sum up, as people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will improve rather than deteriorate.
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